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Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Great Chicago Christmas Tree, Placed versus Constructed

This was the scene at Daley Plaza late Wednesday afternoon, as mayor Rahm Emanuel and ABC7's Val Warner and Mike Caplan lit Chicago's official 2011 Christmas Tree. A 55-foot-tall Colorado spruce brought in from the Spangler home in Western Springs, where it was threatening the foundations, it's s all of a piece.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The compound tree Christmas display of yore was an extravagance of fearsome proportions. I walk across the Daley Plaza daily, and used to marvel at the large crew of city (or were they county?) employees and equipment who would spend a good ten days on each end erecting and then dismantling the great compound tree. I don't know if anyone ever ran the numbers to determine what this cost the public, but I suspect it would have been enough to activate the Grinch in anyone but a union steward.

The new tree is real, realistic and porportioned to what the Christmas Spirit should be... focused within our hearts not on our wallets. I applaud using a single tree, especially when the chosen tree is slated for removal anyway. Bravo Chicago! I visited Daley Plaza over the weekend and heard many comments as I waited in the thick crowds: "That tree looks pathetic!", "That tree is old school", "They must have saved a bundle on the tree".

Last year's donated tree looked beautiful. I am very disappointed with this year's tree. It looks half dead and is not full enough at all. My 5 ft living room tree would have looked better in the Plaza.

That is pretty cool, all the services that are available. I was wondering, I've been looking into a Chicago tree removal service and was wondering which this is and if you had a good experience. Thanks!!

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